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Vol. 13 No. 5, September-October 2011
Copyright 2011 by Wolf J. Rinke
mailto:WolfRinke@aol.com
http://www.WolfRinke.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
2. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
3. ACHIEVE INNER PEACE EVEN DURING TOUGH TIMES-PART 1
4. WANT TO TAKE YOUR CAREER TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
5. HUMOR BREAK
6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
INSIGHT BREAK
"Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what
you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if
you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success
than you could possibly have imagined."
-Johnny Carson
1. NEWS YOU CAN USE
Watching too much TV can shorten your life
This Australian study, reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine,
found that an individual who spends a lifetime average of six hours
a day watching TV can expect to live 4.8 fewer years than someone who
does not watch TV. On average every single hour of TV viewed after the
age of 25 reduces the viewer's life expectancy by 21.8 minutes. The
researchers concluded that these findings are comparable to other major
chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity.
ACTION STEP
Cut your TV viewing time by 10% starting today until you are down to
viewing only those programs that enrich your life.
Source: J L Veerman, et al. Television viewing time and reduced life
expectancy: a life table analysis. Br J Sports Med, 15 August 2011 DOI:
10.1136/bjsm.2011.085662; http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2011/08/01/bjsm.2011.085662.
2. HEAR WOLF HOWL--I MEAN SPEAK
Oct 24, 2011 "Increasing Your Personal Leadership Effectiveness",
Renaissance Woodbridge, Iselin, NJ. This full day seminar maybe open
to you if your company is a member of the Institute of Management Studies
(IMS). Contact Ken Verostick, newjersey@ims-online.com for specifics.
NOTE: I have other "in-house" presentations scheduled. Please
let me know if you are interested to preview me or bring me into your
organization at reduced expenses when I'm scheduled to be in your area.
That way we can let you know when I'm coming your way!
3. ACHIEVE INNER PEACE EVEN DURING TOUGH TIMES-PART 1
by Wolf J. Rinke, PhD, CSP
Unemployment through the roof, an unending list of natural disasters,
105 e-mails waiting to be answered…stress accelerating at logarithmic
speed! We certainly live in a very unsettling and stressful time. And
yet I have found that you can achieve inner peace, even during tough
times, by relentlessly practicing the following 11 strategies:
1. Be Where You Are
Achieving inner peace starts with learning to be in the present. Enjoy
whatever you do in life fully. And the only way I know how to do that
is give whatever you do your undivided attention. In other words I believe
we have taken multi-tasking too far. A good example is what Superwoman,
that's Marcela my life partner of 43 years, and I saw on a recent trip
to Ocean City, MD. It was a beautiful summer day. The temperature was
perfect, the surf was incredible, and the water looked deliciously inviting.
Most people were enjoying themselves and making the most of an awesome
day-except a young couple with two toddlers about two blankets down
from us. Mom had her hands full trying to keep the kids entertained,
and what was dad doing? He had his cell phone glued to his ear, receiving
and making one call after the other. In between calls he was checking
his pager, and working fast and furious on his lap top computer. He
might as well have been in the office, instead of on the beach with
his family on an indescribably beautiful day. And he is not the exception.
I routinely see people walking through airports talking to themselves.
Actually they are talking on the phone. (Remember the old days when
only the mentally challenged did that?) Many continue doing that when
they check in at the gate even while the agent is trying to ask them
a variety of questions. I see women putting on their eye shadow, attending
to their screaming children, answering the phone…and doing all
that while driving.
What's the bloody point? The point is that most of these people are
not doing anything really well. (Research appears to support that it
takes 50 percent longer to complete two tasks simultaneously than if
they were done separately.) Nor are they experiencing all that life
has to offer. To get the most out of life, you have to be in the present.
We should give whatever we are doing our all. When we are on vacation,
we should disconnect the electrical umbilical cords and really recreate.
When we are working, we should give our present task our undivided attention;
and when we are in a meeting, we should listen actively to whoever is
speaking instead of formulating our next response so that we can impress
everyone. The same applies to most other activities in our lives.
Here is what you can do to be where you are:
- Unless it is absolutely essential, do not give your home phone number
to business associates or clients. (I do this and it works.)
- When you go on vacation, leave your beeper, cell phone and laptop
behind. If you think you are that essential (which by the way you
are not), call the office absolutely no more than once a day, and
instruct the office to only get in touch with you in true emergencies.
(Once a week would be better.)
- When at work, make it a practice to meditate or powernap for 20
minutes every working day. Close your office door, turn the phone
over to voice mail and just relax. (The side benefit is that meditation
may enable you to enhance your brain's plasticity to improve its structure
and ability to function and if you are a woman it may even help you
get pregnant. Or do what Marcela and I do.
- Eat a very light and quick lunch, and use the rest of your time
to take a brisk walk.
- Unless it is absolutely essential, do not give your cell phone number
to business associates, clients or even friends. (I use my cell phone
for only super critical calls and emergencies.)
- Minimize multi-tasking. Do it only for tasks that you can do on
autopilot.
- Absolutely avoid doing more than one thing when you are in the presence
of another human being. It is rude, ineffective and a waste of time.
2. Master the Art of Relaxation
Achieving inner peace requires you to master the art of relaxation,
which is more than getting away from the day-to-day grind or even getting
rid of stress. It is discovering activities that enable you to achieve
positive and satisfying feelings. It is not about achieving or doing
things but rather gaining satisfaction from just being, a feat difficult
to master in our production oriented society where most of us feel guilty,
or at least ill-at-ease, whenever we are not actively involved in accomplishing
multiple tasks or doing stuff. One way to do this is to practice the
following relaxation exercise that involves deep breathing, meditation
and biofeedback.
- Sit comfortably and quietly.
- Tell yourself that you are going to use the next 10-20 minutes to
rebalance, heal and relax yourself.
- Surrender the weight of your body, allowing the chair or floor to
support you.
- Close your eyes, gently cutting out visual stimulation and distraction.
- As you inhale, repeat to yourself: "I am"
- As you exhale, say: "relaxed"
- Continue to breathe normally and repeat: "I am" with inhalation,
"relaxed" with exhalation.
- As your mind begins to wander, gently bring it back to the awareness
of your breath and your statement "I am relaxed." Be compassionate
and loving with your mind which wants to be somewhere else.
- Continue doing this for as long as you have established.
- To conclude, discontinue the phrase and slowly stretch your hands,
feet, arms and legs, then your whole body.
- Open your eyes a fraction at a time-like the sun rising in the morning.
- Now you feel refreshed and are ready to return to your normal activities.
3. Simplify Your Life
Most of us just have too much stuff. And all the stuff we have has to
be attended to, maintained or taken care of. And that only adds to the
stress in our lives, which in turn gets in the way of achieving inner
peace. So take a look at all the things you do and have. Ask yourself:
what is giving me pleasure and what is giving me pain? Then begin to
get rid of those things that are taking away from the quality of your
life-the stuff that gives you pain. For example, do you really need
eight credit cards, or would you be better off if you had "plastic
surgery"? Do your children really need to participate in six different
activities or would one or two high quality events be enough? Do your
children really need every new electronic toy that comes on the market
or…I think you're catching on. Before you acquire anything new,
ask: Is this a need or a want? If it is a want, put it back. Still not
sure, ask: Is this going to make my life simpler or more complex? Then
act accordingly. For example, is getting the next promotion going to
make you happier and more satisfied? Or would you be happier if you
had more time for yourself, your family and your community? Face it-more
money will likely not make you happier. (Research tells us that we earn
about three times as much as our grandparents, and yet we are not happier.)
4. Be Honest
Bernie Madoff, Anthony Weiner, the subprime mortgage crisis…do
I need to say more? But before you get too smug, better look in the
mirror. Study after study has shown that virtually all people lie. We
inflate our resumes, fudge our accomplishments, and exaggerate even
inconsequential events. And when we lie, there is no trust, and without
trust you can't have solid relationships; without relationships there
is no love, and without love you won't have inner peace. Call me old-fashioned;
I believe there is no excuse for lying, virtually none. (Sometimes a
white lie that prevents another from being hurt is a good thing. It
is, however, a slippery slope.) There is not even a good reason for
exaggerating. Because if you do, you will have to talk from the head-checking
your memory to make sure that you are consistent. And who can keep track
of that, when most of us have trouble remembering where we put the car
keys. Only by getting in the habit of always telling the truth-especially
if it is at your own expense-will you be able to talk from the heart,
and that will set you free, which in turn will put you on the fast track
in any endeavor. It will also enrich your personal relationships and
most importantly will get you to like and respect yourself-the foundation
for achieving inner peace.
5. Think Empowering Thoughts
As a man thinks, so he becomes, is a well-known phrase. And yet most
of the time, we are totally inattentive to our thoughts. It's almost
like they run amok-totally out of control-doing their own thing. To
achieve inner peace requires us to first become aware of our thoughts-instead
of just letting them ruminate at the subconscious level. Second we must
ask ourselves these questions: is this a thought that empowers me and
makes me stronger, or does it make me feel mad, bad or sad. Thirdly,
we must become aware that at any one nanosecond your mind can hold only
one thought; it can be a positive thought that gives you inner peace
and improves the quality of your life or it can be a negative thought
that does just the opposite. This is very simple yet at the same time
very difficult until you develop this powerful new awareness and transform
it into a habit.
So how do you talk to yourself? By sending ourselves positive internal
affirmations which are A P P P R O V E D:
Accurate - Check your affirmations and make sure that they are correct.
Personal - Use personal pronouns such as I, my, mine, and you will be
able to internalize them more readily
Positive - State what you want to have happen, not, what you don't want
to happen.
Present - State your affirmations in the present tense, as if they had
already happened.
Realistic - Make sure your affirmations are attainable.
Observable - Make your affirmations observable which means that they
are specific and can be checked out.
Valued - Your affirmations should be consistent with your values and
lifetime goals.
Energizing - When you mess up, your affirmations should re-energize
you instead of sapping you.
Dominant - Make your positive affirmations your dominant thoughts.
In a future issue of this eNewsletter I'll share six other strategies
that will enable you to achieve inner peace even in tough times.
To help you live a happier, healthier and wealthier life read or listen
to Make It a Winning Life: Success Strategies for Life, Love or Business
available at http://wolfrinke.com/MIWL.html;
or if you need CPE credits devour Beat the Blues: How to Manage Stress
and Balance Your Life (C178) approved for 28 CPEUs, from which this
article was excerpted, available at http://www.wolfrinke.com/CEFILES/cepd.html#C178)
4. WANT TO TAKE YOUR CAREER TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
Receive on-line "coaching" from me. I've partnered with AthenaOnline.com
to bring you 54 high-impact video mini-lessons that will help you achieve
dramatic improvements in performance, productivity and profitability.
Topics range from "Advancing your Career" to "Leadership
in Tough Times." Each video mini-lesson is about 2 -7 minutes long.
To get started go to http://wolfrinke.com/mgttraining.html.
5. HUMOROUS REFLECTION BREAK
Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people.
-F. M. Hubbard
6. ABOUT THE EDITOR
Dr. Wolf J. Rinke, CSP is a highly effective management consultant and
executive coach who specializes in building peak performance organizations,
teams and individuals. He is the author of 12 CPE manuals, available
at www.easyCPEcredits.com and 5 books including "Make It a Winning
Life: Success Strategies for Life, Love and Business" available
at www.WolfRinke.com. He is also an internationally recognized motivational
and management keynote speaker and seminar leader who delivers customized
presentations that combine story telling, humor and motivation with
specific "how to" action strategies that participants can
apply immediately to improve their personal and professional lives.
You can preview a live demo at www.WolfRinke.com. To take advantage
of Dr. Rinke's services contact us at 800-828-9653 or WolfRinke@aol.com
7. PRIVACY STATEMENT AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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